Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-157

At the side, while she was glancing across the massive army of Aragami, Clyre noticed that Joshua was evading the attacks coming from afar in the middle of the sky. He seemed a little helpless in that sense.

"This can't go on like this."

She clearly knew that Joshua would not be defeated by attacks of this standard. That man had not even used any of his skills yet. However, there were only three of them after all. Facing an endless army of Aragami, they would need to conserve as much strength as they could.

Clyre turned around and looked at 03 who seemed deadly solemn. Just when she opened her mouth to speak, she realized she did not know the language of this other world.

However, the projection 03 blinked her gray-blue eyes and slightly curled up the corner of her mouth. Then, she spoke the common dialect that was used in the Mycroft Continent, catching Clyre off guard, "Don't worry."

"I will provide fire support, however, it will take some time to change the parameters of the bombardment of my cannons." The A.I spoke a bit slower than expected. However, her tone became much more fluent as she continued to speak, "Please hang on for a period of time. Ignore the low-level Aragami. Just do what you guys have been doing. Just kill the Aragami that my cannons cannot kill. That will be enough."

After she was done talking, she turned her head around and proceeded with minding her cannons towards the enemies, bombarding the enemies as heavily as she could. White beams of lights were flashing even faster than before across the battlefield, leaving giant holes in the large wave of Aragami.

"Good… You're learning quite fast." Clyre sighed in relief. She then turned her attention away from being surprised at the learning speed of the A.I. Instead, she returned her focus on controlling her plants to attack the Aragami in the surroundings. At the same time, she lifted up the brown staff in her hand. The green primal energy was brimming, turning into a light green ancient rune.

After that, the elven druid took out a seed from the small pocket by her waist and tossed it on the ground. The ancient rune then flew around the staff over a few rounds before sinking into the staff. After she took a breath of air in, the white seed began to sprout. The silver shoot that sprouted out from the seed then submerged into the metallic ground on the fortress's base. It then grew at a rapid rate that one could see its changes vividly.

After throwing the silver-white seed, Clyre had a slight look of pain on her face. It seemed that the seed was extremely valuable even for her. However, she did not delay any further to take the next action. She did not even have the slightest hesitation at all to act. Not only that, she also took out the Infernal Ring of the Twin Serpents that Joshua lent her. The magic power began to surge through the ring, causing the runes on the ring to start flashing.

"Twin Guard Serpents!"

The warrior had already told Clyre how to use this golden supernatural magic ring earlier on. So she did not hesitate to immediately utter the secret words to use one of the spells that were embedded within this ring, [Fire Elemental Summon].

Rumble—

Blue and white flames erupted in the air, followed by the appearance of a huge portal formed from countless ancient runes. The heat that was hot enough to melt steel combusted the air, giving off the scent of burnt meat. Meanwhile, the two gargantuan serpents that were formed from blue and white flames burst right out from the portal. After that, the two serpents wound themselves up around Clyre. The eyes of the two serpents were white and silver. They seemed emotionless.

"… The time required to summon has increased, and the summon duration seems to have shortened a little. At this rate, these serpants would vanish in half an hour."

When Clyre summoned the two gigantic fire elementals, she was well-aware that they would not be able draw any elemental energy from the surroundings to recharge due to the nature of the world. In any case, there was not even the slightest trace of elemental energy left in Karlis for them to draw from since the beginning. Hence, it would not be long before for the serpents return to the fire elemental realm.

However, that would not matter much at all. After all, she only needed to direct some of the attacks to her in order for Joshua to gain a brief moment to regain his balance. Hence, Clyre did not have the slightest hesitation at all as she pointed her finger forward, commanding the two giant fire elementals to move forward, "Devour these foul creatures."

"Hiss… hiss…"

Following the orders as they remained in silence, the two fire elemental serpents moved forward without any hesitation. They charged straight at the Aragami army that was densely packed together. As the serpents moved forward, they left a trail of molten gold and steel.

Meanwhile, Clyre did not stop casting her own spells. She continued to hold onto the Infernal Ring of the Twin Serpents as she whispered the secret words, "Flame of the Sun, protect my body!"

Superior Flame Barrier!

While she was saying the words, the druid could not help but come up with a strange thought, "I am obviously a druid that wields the power of nature. So why am I using fire magic then?"

However, that thought left her mind almost immediately. Meanwhile, along with the blazingly white light being ignited, the blazing wall of flame immediately appeared on the battlefield, bringing a little bit of warmth to this cold and forsaken world. At the same time, the two gargantuan fire serpents had also struck the core of the Aragami army causing immeasurable chaos. These serpents had no fear of death. They were born to purely chew and devour their enemies, setting their enemies in their surroundings on fire with their high-temperature bodies.

In the meantime, it seemed that the Aragami that were surrounding Joshua had also sensed the heat of the scorching flame. Regardless of whether they were the Aragami in the shape of a locust, centipede or other Chaos monsters, they were hissing at the same time. After that, most of them turned their attention over to Clyre and the two fire elementals, locking them as the new targets as if the Aragami were trying to extinguish those flames.

These monsters were just acting based on their basic instincts. Their main purpose was to extinguish the fire in the world. That was the sad life for the Chaos creatures.

"Moreila, I'm counting on you."

After using a series of spells that were not compatible with her Class, the druid let out a big gasp. Feeling quite exhausted at the moment, she was fending off the Aragami in her surroundings while speaking to the old dwarf. After that, she focused her attention on seeing the large silver-white seed growing at an insane speed. The amount of primal energy that she infused into her own body was not much. She continued to accelerate the growth of the seed.

"It's really annoying. You are exactly the same as before."

With the spear piercing out, killing several Aragami right before him, Moreila let out a sigh. However, he could not ignore Clyre's request. Naturally, he knew that he would need to rely on this spellcaster in order to change their current situation.

So the old dwarf moved the white spear in his hand horizontally, sweeping up a blast of wind to sweep away all of the Aragami right before him. Right after that, the Combat Aura within his body was set ablaze. The brewing flame had revealed all the wrinkles on every corner of the face of the old dwarf. Along with a special 'Kokyu-ho', he revealed a confident smile on his face and his whole body sparkled with golden light that was rapidly solidifying.

In the meantime, Clyre was standing right beside him. There was also golden radiance that seemed to be solidifying, surrounding her body. Right behind the both of them, a fortified wall that looked like the shadow of a mountain was formed from their powerful Combat Aura.

[Mountain Barrier]

Originally used for offensive purposes, the Combat Aura was now being turned into a stable defensive wall that looked as stable and firm as a mountain. Only the dwarves would be capable of learning such Combat Aura skill. As all of the Aragami crashed into the wall, their heads cracked. The outer shells that were formed from crystallized substances and chitin were shattered by the impact of them crashing into the wall. Strange fluids were dripping off the Aragami as they were heavily wounded by their own actions.

However, the number of the Aragami was truly a little too much. The monsters that were attracted by the flame came crashing into the mountainous barrier and the Superior Fire Barrier like an endless river. They were being set ablaze by flames that were thousands of degrees hot. After that, they were ramming the wall in an enraged manner, causing the powerful defensive wall that could resist the impact of city siege weapons to shake and crumble within ten seconds. And now, the defensive wall was on the verge of breaking down.

However, no one was worried about that though. Clyre and Moreila looked extremely calm at the moment. Because during this time, the small silver-white seed was growing bigger and bigger. By the end of it, the seed had grown into a giant silver tree that was over twenty meters tall.

Phew! Screech!

Along with some ear-piercing screeching sound caused by some friction between two surfaces, the broken metallic ground beneath the legs of the elf was beginning to flatten out. Meanwhile, right in the surroundings of the giant silver tree, there was a metal tentacle emerging from the ground all of a sudden. It grabbed on one of the Aragami that was charging forward and threw it out like throwing a baseball with all its might.

Boom!

The Aragami that was thrown by the metal tentacle was flying out like a projecting cannonball, which soon crashed into many other Aragami, destroying their bodies before plunging hard onto the surface of the metallic ground. Along with a violent crashing sound, the impact of the Aragami striking into the metallic ground had left a giant pit with a three-meter radius. Dust was flying everywhere, and the remaining of the dead bodies of the Aragami were scattering everywhere in the surroundings.

The Gold-tier war plants and the mystical steel tree!

Right in the satisfied eyes of Clyre and Moreila, the metallic base of the fortress that became in ruin had once again become flattened out nicely along with the steady growth of the tree. However, in the region of the Aragami, countless metallic spikes came piercing up from the metallic ground, impaling the Aragami straight through their bodies. This unparalleled power had caused a large disturbance and chaos to the formation of the Aragami army.

Meanwhile, Joshua instantly felt the pressure on him lighten. As 03 had already modified the parameters of the bombardment of her cannons, those cannon attacks that were aimed more precisely on the Aragami had allowed Joshua to break free from the chained attacks from the Aragami in the sky. Furthermore, he had been heavily surrounded by groups of Aragami on the ground as well. Although they could not pose much of a threat to the warrior, however, they had him caught in the middle of their attacks. Because of that, Joshua could not fly into the sky and kill those Aragami with crab-like appearances that had cannons on them.

However, the current situation had changed. Now, under the Clyre's support, the army that got him surrounded was largely distracted. The pressure of being surrounded had been greatly reduced. So he had finally gained the time to recharge his power, aiming at the monsters in the sky that only knew how to shoot their cannons.

Boom!

The earth cracked by an enormous force. There were countless folds and cracks on the surface of the metallic ground. Joshua pushed his entire body into the sky like a red meteor's movement in reverse, flying across the sky.

Meanwhile, back at the world of Mycroft, the northern Empire, the northen dwarven settlement.

Right in the middle of the Volcanic Lake, Nostradamus was walking on the golden hot lava, revealing a stern expression on his face as he fixed his gaze on the hidden dimensional rift that laid before him. The old mage with a head full of white hair furrowed his brow as he took out an instrument that looked like a compass, surging with endless energy. Then he muttered to himself, "Is it this one?"